What if you are told that the super insane and stunning ‘visual effects’ that kept you on the edge of your seat are no cinematic fantasies?

What if YOU could be the Tony Stark with his astounding techno prowess?

The futuristic technology is here. The future is here.

If you had fossilized your archaic keyboards and mice, get ready to bid goodbyes to your ‘smart’ screens too now. No more touch and swipe screens, only INTUITIVE INTERACTION. Your device is going to respond to your ambient cues and intentional movements to create empathetic, personalized experiences. Your gesture, mood and gaze are going to interface and control your device.

Welcome to the age of AUGMENTED REALITY (AR).

Augmented Reality is the projection and superimposition of 3D virtual objects on your real world view and we perceive the augmented or supplemented view as one complete whole. Augmentation is normally in real time and semantic context of the environment around. (Not to be confused with Virtual Reality, where the real world comes to be replaced with a simulated one.)

However,the Augmented Reality technology is still in its nascent stage, but it is one growing sensation. The frenzy around the latest Pokémon Go game is a living example.

World’s leading forward looking tech MNCs are heavily investing in making the Augmented Reality real in the next few years. Some of the recent ones are:

Microsoft released Primsense technology in Kinect 1, acquired gesture recongition firm Canesta, and then released Kinect 2 with Canesta technology. And much famed HoloLens is also now available for developers.

Qualcomm acquired GestureTek’s gesture technology related patents.

Intel has focused on Perceptual Computing and offers RealSense technology for different hardware products.

Apple too recently acquired Primesense.

Sony recently acquired SoftKinetic.

Google has Project Tango for 3D camera enabled tablets and also invested heavily in Magic Leap. Google also acquired gesture recognition company Flutter in 2013.

Facebook has a lot of press around their acquisition of Oculus Rift, but their recent Pebbles acquisition highlights a bigger move into gesture based technology.